What gauge wire is every one using for their motor hookup wire? It looks like the connectors are designed for 26 gauge?
I use UTP lan cable whenever I can, because it’s cheap and has conveniently pre-twisted pairs, ideal for reducing EMI on the steppers leads. I think they are 26AWG / 0.14mm² or so and have so far been sufficient for any amount of current I pushed through them (except for extruder heaters, those require a couple wire pairs in parallel).
Same as +Thomas Sanladerer. I Use premise cabling not patch cords as premise is solid core, not braided. I also use IDC punch down ‘krone’ blocks to connect stuff.
Interesting I had planed on using lan cable for non moving parts. Are you using them for moving parts as well?
I am also on LAN cables. Only partially but I’m planning to use it more. Add some strain reliefs for extra reliability where things move a lot. @Thomas_Sanladerer and @Tim_Rastall are you connecting one in each pair to ground on your motor cables?
@Mike_Ashcraft i’ve used UTP for a good while in a printed drag chain from the right X-end to the carriage (Rmin~25mm) with no signs of fatigue.
@korpx Nope, and i’m not quite sure what benefits that would get you. Though i do make sure to match the coils to pairs, so that any potentially emitted interferences get canceled out.
Assuming you have shielded lan cable. Most are not shielded unless you pay the premium.
It typically depends on the length of the run and the install environment as to if its shielded or not.
I typically use unshielded for wiring up a house as the runs are short most of the time and there are not 50+ cables bundled next to each other.
Cat6 I think is also typically shielded.
Cat6a (that supports 10ge) is pretty much always shielded, anything under that rating will come in UTP, F/UTP with a single sheild around all cores or U/FTP where each pair is shielded, depending on the application, there’s SFTP too. (Ive worked in Telecommunications for 15 years which is why I know this). I use braided patch lead UTP for thermistor, fans and stepper on the mendelmax extruder, never had an issue. I’ve been meaning to try terminating the cables to rj45 plugs/sockets to see if that introduces any problems. Would be very convenient for swapping parts. You shouldn’t need a sheild unless the cables are running right past a stepper and even then inductive effects would be pretty low I suspect.
Now if I remember correctly, Makerbot had everything wired up with lan cable and RJ45 connectors. Since RJ45 connectors are made to much stricter specifications than what we require (and I can’t think of any other connector that is giving us problems) I think RJ45s should be totally fine.
For the low frequencies you’re using, you don’t need shielding, so cat5 and cat5e should be fine and cheaper. Like mentioned before, be sure to match the motor coil to a twisted pair, otherwise you’re inducing crosstalk, but it would still probably work. @korpx grounding neighboring wires is used when running parallel single ended signals. It reduces the crosstalk by absorbing the electric field of the signal line and dumping it to ground, but doors not protect as well as differential pairs, since the differential pair, the electric fields in the twisted pair actually push each other in the right direction (in totally butchering this explanation, sorry).
As for using solid core, out should Jeremy be used for stationary uses only, that being said, my kit came with solid core, so my printer has solid core. My only gripe is that my wires occasionally break at the solder joints when I take the printer apart.
But if say use what is easiest to get the darn connectors terminated to. I’m still wrestling with that as I don’t want to borrow crimping tools from work :o/